How can I be right with God?
There is no more important question we can ask. Our conscience testifies to us that we have broken God’s law, and we know, intuitively, that we deserve death for our transgressions (Rom 1:32; cf. Heb 2:14-15). Not aware of God’s way of escape, however, some of us attempt to placate our troubled consciences with religious ritual, philanthropy, and laboring to “improve” ourselves. Others try to smother the conscience with entertainment, substance abuse, or other forms of escapism. Still others take a more sophisticated tack by developing complex philosophical arguments against the existence of God and the truthfulness of the Bible.
The doctrine of justification is precious to the wounded conscience because it explains how a sinner can be right with God and know that he is right with God, despite his many infractions against God and his law. It provides the way of escape that every sinner desperately needs and beckons us to give up our attempts at justifying ourselves through religion, escapism, or atheism. Yet, precisely because this doctrine is so precious to the sinner’s soul, Satan has been attacking it ceaselessly since the birth of the church. It should come as no surprise that the apostle Paul’s first canonical letter dealt with false teachers perverting the doctrine of justification.
A Damning Addition to the Gospel in Galatia
Writing to the churches in the Galatian region (modern-day Turkey) around 48-49 AD, Paul was both astonished and angry that these new believers had been so quickly duped by “another gospel.” Paul had preached the true gospel to these Galatians as he planted their churches, but some professing Jewish believers arrived shortly afterward and started to add to what Paul had said. Paul had originally preached that sinners are justified by faith alone in Christ and not by works of the law. These Jewish teachers—Judaizers as they’ve been called—agreed that Jesus was necessary for salvation, but they also argued that Gentiles needed to be circumcised as well in order to be in right standing with God.
This was not a slight enhancement to the gospel that Paul could respect, or a minor difference that he could brush aside or ignore. No, this additional sentence—you must be circumcised—nullified the gospel. The gospel taught that sinners are justified—declared righteous in God’s sight—at the moment of faith and wholly apart from any works (see Gal 2:16; 3:1; Rom 4:5). Justification is a free gift, granted to sinners by a gracious God, provided through the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and received by faith alone (Rom 3:21-26). To add even a shred of additional requirement to this gospel was a damnable offense because it imperiled people’s souls, badly disrupted their spiritual lives, and robbed Christ of his glory as a sufficient Savior.
So serious was the issue of adding to the gospel that Paul called down a double set of curses on anyone, including heavenly angels and the apostles themselves, if they ever tweaked the gospel with supplementary requirements.
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed (Gal 1:8-9).
In order to set them back on course, Paul needed to reassert the gospel and root it deep in Scripture so that these Galatian Christians could see that justification has always been by faith and by faith alone.
An Embattled Doctrine
But this controversy over the truth of justification wasn’t an isolated incident, nor was it an issue relegated only to the first century. No, the doctrine of justification has been steadily challenged for the last two millennia. Again, that should not surprise us. The doctrine of justification is about how sinful, hell-deserving sinners can come into a right relationship with the living God. Satan wants nothing more than to dilute, misrepresent, twist, and otherwise pervert the gospel of the grace of God in Christ so that people will remain estranged from God and in the throes of sin and guilt.
In the next article, we will consider five essential truths about justification. Each of these truths must be believed if we are going to remain steady in our assurance, avoid self-righteousness, and effectively preach the good news to fellow sinners.
